Ajankohtaista alueellisessa kehittämisessä vol II

Katsauksessa selvitetään valittuja ajankohtaisia teemoja alueellista kehittämistä eri näkökulmista tarkastelevassa kirjallisuudessa. Siinä otetaan kantaa myös joukkoon kehittämishaasteiden jäsentymistä koskevia keskusteluja. Tarkasteltavaksi valikoituneet aiheet keskittyvät pääasiassa käytännöllisiin kysymyksiin, jollaisia maakunnallinen liitto kohtaa aluekehittämistyössä ja maakunnallisessa suunnittelussa. Tällaisesta tulevaan kehitykseen varautuvasta suunnitteluorientaatiosta johtuen katsauksen huomio kohdistuu erilaisiin kohdattaviksi tuleviin haasteisiin ja mahdollisuuksiin. Materiaalin hankinnassa on keskitytty ensiksikin tuoreisiin julkaisuihin (2003-2009) ja toiseksi pohjoismaisiin esimerkkeihin, joiden konteksti tavalla tai toisella muistuttaa kehittämisasetelmaa Pirkanmaalla. Tällaisin valintakriteerein esimerkkeihin on pyritty saamaan lisää käytännönläheisyyttä. Julkaisujen lisäksi on käyty läpi eräiden keskeisten suomalaisten aluekehityksen parissa työskentelevien toimijoiden julkaisu- ja projektihakemistoja viime vuosilta. Raportin teema-alueet on jäsennetty yhteistyössä Pirkanmaan liiton suunnittelu- ja kehittämistehtävistä vastaavien asiantuntijoiden kanssa. Tehdyt sisältöratkaisut ovat kuitenkin olleet raportin vastuullisten kirjoittajien käsissä. Raportti on jatkoa muutama vuosi sitten tässä sarjassa julkaistulle Ajankohtaista alueellisessa kehittämisessä -katsaukselle. Edellisen raportin yleiskatsauksellisuudesta tämän tekstin erottaa fokusoituminen selvästi rajatumpaan joukkoon aihepiirejä

Smoking status as a predictor of antidepressant medication use

Peer reviewe

Spatial distributions and seasonal cycles of aerosols in India and China seen in global climate-aerosol model

Peer reviewe

Cognitive functioning and depressive symptoms in adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease

Peer reviewe

Predictive Association of Smoking with Depressive Symptoms : a Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Twins

Longitudinal, genetically informative studies of the association between cigarette smoking and depressive symptoms among adolescents are limited. We examined the longitudinal association of cigarette smoking with subsequent depressive symptoms during adolescence in a Finnish twin cohort. We used prospective data from the population-based FinnTwin12 study (maximum N = 4152 individuals, 1910 twin pairs). Current smoking status and a number of lifetime cigarettes smoked were assessed at the age of 14 and depressive symptoms at the age of 17. Negative binomial regression was conducted to model the association between smoking behavior and subsequent depressive symptoms among individuals, and within-pair analyses were conducted to control for unmeasured familial confounding. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, school grades, drinking alcohol to intoxication, health status, family structure, parental education, and smoking, as well as for pre-existing depressiveness. The results of the individual-level analyses showed that cigarette smoking at the age of 14 predicted depressive symptoms at the age of 17. Compared to never smokers, those who had smoked over 50 cigarettes (incidence rate ratio, IRR = 1.43, 95% CI 1.28-1.60) and regular smokers (IRR = 1.46, 95% CI 1.32-1.62) had higher depression scores. The associations were attenuated when adjusted for measured covariates and further reduced in within-pair analyses. In the within-pair results, the estimates were lower within monozygotic (MZ) pairs compared to dizygotic (DZ) pairs, suggesting that shared genetic factors contribute to the associations observed in individual-based analyses. Thus, we conclude that cigarette smoking is associated with subsequent depressive symptoms during adolescence, but the association is not independent of measured confounding factors and shared genetic influences.Peer reviewe

Stroke is predicted by low visuospatial in relation to other intellectual abilities and coronary heart disease by low general intelligence

Background Low intellectual ability is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. Most studies have used a general intelligence score. We studied whether three different subscores of intellectual ability predict these disorders. Methods We studied 2,786 men, born between 1934 and 1944 in Helsinki, Finland, who as conscripts at age 20 underwent an intellectual ability test comprising verbal, visuospatial (analogous to Raven's progressive matrices) and arithmetic reasoning subtests. We ascertained the later occurrence of coronary heart disease and stroke from validated national hospital discharge and death registers. Results 281 men (10.1%) had experienced a coronary heart disease event and 131 (4.7%) a stroke event. Coronary heart disease was predicted by low scores in all subtests, hazard ratios for each standard deviation (SD) lower score ranging from 1.21 to 1.30 (confidence intervals 1.08 to 1.46). Stroke was predicted by a low visuospatial reasoning score, the corresponding hazard ratio being 1.23 (95% confidence interval 1.04 to 1.46), adjusted for year and age at testing. Adjusted in addition for the two other scores, the hazard ratio was 1.40 (1.10 to 1.79). This hazard ratio was little affected by adjustment for socioeconomic status in childhood and adult life, whereas the same adjustments attenuated the associations between intellectual ability and coronary heart disease. The associations with stroke were also unchanged when adjusted for systolic blood pressure at 20 years and reimbursement for adult antihypertensive medication. Conclusions Stroke is predicted by low visuospatial reasoning scores in relation to scores in the two other subtests. This association may be mediated by common underlying causes such as impaired brain development, rather than by mechanisms associated with risk factors shared by stroke and coronary heart disease, such as socio-economic status, hypertension and atherosclerosisPeer reviewe

Early life origins cognitive decline: findings in elderly men in the helsinki birth cohort study.

OBJECTIVES: To examine whether the adverse effects of slow prenatal and postnatal growth on cognitive function persist to old age and predict age related cognitive decline. DESIGN AND SETTING: A longitudinal birth cohort study of men born in Helsinki, Finland 1934-44. PARTICIPANTS: Nine-hundred-thirty-one men of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study, with detailed data on growth from birth to adulthood, aged 20.1 (SD = 1.4) at the first and 67.9 (SD = 2.5) years at the second cognitive testing. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The Finnish Defense Forces Basic Intellectual Ability Test assessed twice over nearly five decades apart. RESULTS: Lower weight, length and head circumference at birth were associated with lower cognitive ability at 67.9 years (1.04-1.55 points lower ability per each standard deviation [SD] unit decrease in body size, 95% Confidence Interval [95%CI]: 0.05 to 2.72) and with cognitive decline after 20.1 years (0.07-0.11 SD decline over time per each SD decrease in body size, 95%CI:0.00 to 0.19). Men who were born larger were more likely to perform better in the cognitive ability test over time (1.22-1.43 increase in odds to remain in the top relative to the lower two thirds in ability over time per each SD increase in body size, 95%CI:1.04 to 1.79) and were more resilient to cognitive decline after 20.1 years (0.69 to 0.76 decrease in odds to decline from than remain in the top third of ability over time per each SD increase in body size, 95%CI:0.49 to 0.99). Slower growth between birth and two years in weight, height and body mass index was associated with lower cognitive ability at 67.9 years, but not with cognitive decline. CONCLUSIONS: Poorer lifetime cognitive ability is predicted by slower growth before and after birth. In predicting resilience to age related cognitive decline, the period before birth seems to be more critical.Peer reviewe

Spatial Planning and its contribution to climate friendly and sustainable transport solutions

This paper discusses and further elaborates on the issue of how spatial planning can contribute to the development of climate friendly and sustainable transport solutions. Focus here is placed, primarily, on climate change mitigation – reducing the emission of greenhouse gases – though the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability are also highlighted. In order for spatial planning to properly address a sustainable approach to climate change mitigation, the other dimensions of sustainability, such as climate change adaptation, have also to be addressed. To achieve this, spatial planning, it is argued, has to create synergies between the six different toolkits presented in this paper. An understanding of the three factors of time, space and the nature of the stakeholders involved is also crucial in the search for climate friendly and sustainable transport solutions. The paper introduces a theoretical framework and then presents three cases in the regions of Stockholm, Helsinki and on the island Bornholm. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings arising from the previous sections